This is Homecoming weekend at Louisiana Methodist Children’s Home. Late this afternoon, our former residents will enjoy a fish fry and social at the OWL Center. This will be an informal time to enjoy each other and catch up on the past year. It’s also a time for our alumni to tell stories of their experiences growing up at the Home.

Tomorrow morning, we will gather at James House for coffee, juice, donuts and more conversation. The chapel service will follow and then lunch will be served in the Holt Activities Center.

Homecoming connects us to people who are a part of our agency’s rich heritage. This is very important stuff. Our former residents remember who we have been and are willing to share their stories. Those stories tell us how the Home’s character, values and mission have been expressed through the years.

The future of the Home and all we will do in Louisiana is fed by who we have been in the past. Homecoming gives us a chance to appreciate who we have been and to value the ministry we and all our former employees have offered children and families. Homecoming allows us to tell our former residents about our current ministries in Louisiana.

It’s easy to think that today and the future are all there is. Now and tomorrow are never the complete picture. The Home has ministered to children for 110 years. There’s a lot of good in our organizational DNA. Homecoming is our opportunity to affirm our rich and faithful past.